Journal zappepcs's Journal: Math is important - and intriguing 3
I've always wondered about things. What goes on in my head is far more strange than anything you are likely to find on the Internet most days. Things like how mammals came to have 5 digits for the most part. Yes, I know evolution explains it fairly simply but that does not explain how we almost all stuck with 5 digits and the body symmetry.
How math seems to evidence itself everywhere in nature. Perhaps it's just that math seems that way in explaining how nature is. I still wonder if there is a relationship here that has a cause elsewhere that we should be looking at.
Today I read an article about Moby Dick or rather, FTFA:
The following challenge was made by Michael Drosnin:
When my critics find a message about the assassination of a prime minister encrypted in Moby Dick, I'll believe them.
(Newsweek, Jun 9, 1997)
Note that English with the vowels included is far less flexible than Hebrew when it comes to making letters into words. Nevertheless, without further ado, we present our answer to Mr Drosnin's challenge.
Relate this to MD5 hash collisions - which now seem inevitable, if rare, and it feels like I'm seeing a pattern. We used to think a trillion dollars was a lot, no longer. Large numbers like PI seemed huge, but perhaps they should not be thought of like that anymore.
I am not a statistician by any means, and advanced math hurts my head for the most part. Hopefully someone out there will point to a URL that explains more. As we analyze nature further we find ways to make materials that mimic nature and coincidentally include more math in their structure. Other advances are based on nature and math that could revolutionize how we as a species live on this planet.
I'm not linking to any of the stories describing things I've mentioned - sorry.
I was thinking the other night about AI. We attempt to mimic the human mind mostly and I don't think it's a perfect example of the 'I' part. Seems we have 2 brains with large connectivity between them. We have 5 senses and can do approximately 7 things at once. So 1,2,3,5, and 7 seem to be important numbers. Fibonacci excelled at the stuff that makes my brain hurt so I'm not going to analyze this much right now, but can you see any similarity to his math and these seemingly important numbers I've mentioned? It could be pure coincidence. It might be something else.
Does anyone have any URLs that explain more of this? Something that might stop me feeling a bit like Neo? I'd like to understand more and explore it more.
Thanks for any help anyone can direct my way.
Mathematically (Score:2)
The universe is best explained as a Hologram.
Of course, a Hologram is to existence just what Moby Dick is, to a whale-hunt.
Welcome to my new project: Earth vs. Mercator.
Re: (Score:1)
Earth vs. Mercator.
Oh brother... the VERY [slashdot.org] first thing that popped into my mind
You will go crazy... (Score:1)
... looking for a pattern where there is none.
As referenced in the link (Drosnin), take any large slab of text and you can find whatever you want in there.
Numbers are more even more crazy.
You probably want something on information theory - Claude Shannon's original work is available and a good start and is constantly referred to. Just skim it, no need to at least initially, to read in depth and do the math.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_theory [wikipedia.org]
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/shann [bell-labs.com]